Help your child learn to eat (and enjoy!) vegetables
I came across a really interesting new study this year investigating how parents can help their children learn to eat a disliked vegetable. They compared the following five groups:
- A control group that didn’t get any intervention
- Parents presented the vegetable every day
- Parents presented the vegetable every day and modelled eating that vegetable (i.e. the parent ate it in front of the child)
- Parents presented the vegetable every day and praised/rewarded (with a non-food item) the child for “trying” it
- Parents presented the vegetable every day, modelled eating it and praised/rewarded the child for “trying” it
At the end of the study significant differences in liking were found between the experimental groups. Liking was highest (>60%) in the modelling, rewards and repeated exposure group and the rewards and repeated exposure group, intermediate (>26%) in the modelling and repeated exposure and repeated exposure groups, and lowest in the control group (10%). This tells us that repeated exposure to a disliked food, modelling and rewarding eating behaviour can potentially increase children’s vegetable consumption. So the key message is that although your child “doesn’t eat/like” a specific food it doesn’t mean they never will. Keep exposing them without forcing, model eating it and praise/reward if they make an attempt.
In summary, here are 3 simple steps to helping your child learn to eat a food they currently dislike:
- Present the food regularly
- Model eating the food
- Praise/reward any attempts to touch, eat or interact with the food
Here’s the link to the article if you are interested in reading more:
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